/* * Copyright 2003-2004 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER. * * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as * published by the Free Software Foundation. Sun designates this * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided * by Sun in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code. * * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that * accompanied this code). * * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version * 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, * Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA. * * Please contact Sun Microsystems, Inc., 4150 Network Circle, Santa Clara, * CA 95054 USA or visit www.sun.com if you need additional information or * have any questions. */ package java.lang.annotation; /** * The common interface extended by all annotation types. Note that an * interface that manually extends this one does not define * an annotation type. Also note that this interface does not itself * define an annotation type. * * @author Josh Bloch * @since 1.5 */ public interface Annotation { /** * Returns true if the specified object represents an annotation * that is logically equivalent to this one. In other words, * returns true if the specified object is an instance of the same * annotation type as this instance, all of whose members are equal * to the corresponding member of this annotation, as defined below: * * * @return true if the specified object represents an annotation * that is logically equivalent to this one, otherwise false */ boolean equals(Object obj); /** * Returns the hash code of this annotation, as defined below: * *

The hash code of an annotation is the sum of the hash codes * of its members (including those with default values), as defined * below: * * The hash code of an annotation member is (127 times the hash code * of the member-name as computed by {@link String#hashCode()}) XOR * the hash code of the member-value, as defined below: * *

The hash code of a member-value depends on its type: *

* * @return the hash code of this annotation */ int hashCode(); /** * Returns a string representation of this annotation. The details * of the representation are implementation-dependent, but the following * may be regarded as typical: *
     *   @com.acme.util.Name(first=Alfred, middle=E., last=Neuman)
     * 
* * @return a string representation of this annotation */ String toString(); /** * Returns the annotation type of this annotation. */ Class annotationType(); }